Emergency generators to be stored in Franklin

FRANKLIN — The National Guard Armory on Munsonhurst Road has been designated as one of three regional locations throughout the state that together will house 52 generators for possible deployment to gasoline stations and other essential facilities in the event of a future emergency comparable to Hurricane Sandy.

The generators are being provided courtesy of $2.5 million in Hurricane Sandy relief aid that has been awarded to New Jersey by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

As part of the program, about 258 retail fuel stations throughout the state have agreed to install an emergency power sub-panel to be compatible with the generator connections. The program is intended so that gasoline stations will be able to continue functioning during a sustained power outage and so that first responders will be assured of access to critically needed fuel supplies.

The generators, which will be under the direct control of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, will also be available to other critical assets such as shelters, hospitals, and public safety facilities throughout the state.

The other two depots housing the generators will include a Central Jersey location in Hamilton, in Mercer County; and a South Jersey location in Woodbine, in Cape May County.

In a prepared statement, New Jersey State Police Superintendent and Emergency Management Director Col. Rick Fuentes indicated the program would help avert the gas panic that ensued following Hurricane Sandy two years ago.

“As we learned during Superstorm Sandy, reliable access to backup power when the electric grid fails is crucial to ensuring a swift and effective emergency response,” Fuentes said. “By establishing a cache of strategically located portable generators, state emergency management officials are taking an important step in making New Jersey more resilient when faced with future disasters.”

Franklin Mayor Paul Crowley and Borough Administrator James Killduff, when contacted Tuesday, both said they had not yet been apprised of the plans or of exactly how many generators would be stored in Franklin.

But Mary Goepfert, a spokesperson for the state Office of Emergency Management, said that unlike the smaller generators that several public officials were reported to have taken for personal use in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, these generators will be secured to the ground and will not be of the type that one or two people would be able to lift and remove on their own.

“There'll be security around the sites,” she said. “These generators will be sizable and are not going to be of the type that people can just pick up and walk off with. These generators are for gas stations and other commercial operations that require much more power than you'd need to run your refrigerators and TV.”

Goepfert said the state would have direct control of the generators and where they are deployed.

“There's going to be monitoring around them,” she said. “We have 258 gas stations that have applied for hookups, and we have 52 generators, so decisions are going to have to be made about where these generators will go.”

Separate from these developments, attorney Walter Luers said the Appellate Division of state Superior Court has yet to schedule a hearing in the appeal of a judge's ruling that ordered the release of investigative records relating to the personal use of generators in November 2012 by employees of the Warren County Sheriff's Office.

The Warren County Prosecutor's Office, which investigated the matter in December 2012, ultimately closed its investigation and referred the matter back to the Sheriff's Office for internal review and follow-up.

A lawsuit subsequently filed by open-government advocate John Paff resulted in a ruling late last year that the records of the investigation should be released, subject to redaction of the names of those who were investigated.

The Warren County Prosecutor's Office has since appealed the ruling. Luers, who represented Paff in that lawsuit, said the appeal probably would not be heard until the end of this year.